Former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer, left, and then-Rep. Mark Udall, right, during a taping of “Meet the Press” at the NBC studios Sept. 28, 2008, in Washington, D.C. Udall would go on to win the Senate race, and is running for re-election this year. (Alex Wong/Getty Images for Meet the Press)

“Meet the Press” over the years has provided a fascinating look at Colorado’s U.S. Senate races so it’s disappointing there won’t be a showdown between Sen. Mark Udall and Congressman Cory Gardner.

The Sunday morning news program did not do Senate debates in 2012 and although there was talk of hosting them this year after Chuck Todd took over as host that never happened.

Too bad. The Meet the Press encounters over the years have included a Broncos jersey, the inclusion of North Dakota in the axis of evil and a game-changing comment about homosexuality. Read on:

Note: The video from the Udall campaign has been removed from this blog post because it contained copyrighted material from The Denver Post. The campaign has been asked to eliminate a clip taken from The Post’s debate.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent , Congressman Cory Gardner, face off during a televised debate at 9News in Denver on Oct. 15. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall’s campaign has released a two-minute video showing his Republican opponent, Congressman Cory Gardner, getting hammered for his response to questions about his stance on personhood.

“Congressman Gardner has been lying to the people of Colorado in order to further his own political ambitions — and now he’s getting called out for it,” said Udall for Colorado spokesperson Kristin Lynch. “Gardner’s lies aren’t just dishonest, they’re disrespectful to the people of Colorado who deserve a straight answer on where he stands.”

The congressman in March announced he no longer supported personhood measures that appeared on Colorado’s ballot in 2008 and 2010 because he realized critics were right and they would result in banning some sorts of birth control. He called personhood a “bad idea driven by good intentions.”

His latest was compiled from video recorded recently by O’Keefe, wearing a disguise, and his Project Veritas Action team in Northern Colorado at Democratic groups’ get-out-the-vote offices and with a state House campaign worker. It kicks off with O’Keefe saying: “Project Veritas Action found a number of people in Colorado who don’t seem to have much problem with illegal voting.”

The video is promoted as showing advocates for Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall condoning voter fraud, at the prodding of O’Keefe and others who provided fake backgrounds, though it doesn’t show Udall’s campaign itself taking part.

What the video doesn’t say at the start is that, as left-leaning Mother Jones reported this week, O’Keefe also encountered many people on campaigns and independent groups who sniffed out quickly what he was up to. Those folks didn’t play ball. (O’Keefe notes in passing later that some people recognized him.)

Although this has been a common theme in other Colorado races, it hasn’t been as prevalent in the gubernatorial race.

“The Race” begins with a group of women lining up at the starting line. The voice in the ad says, “This is the race that matters; the one that Colorado women can’t afford to lose.” The women take off, running from right to left on the screen. Coincidence?

The PAC, which is separate from the campaign of Gov. John Hickenlooper, makes two claims in the ad:

1. Beauprez would ban abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.

The ad refers the viewer to an interview Beauprez gave to Colorado Public Radio in 2006. Beauprez said he would favor overturning Roe v. Wade, banning all abortions unless the mother’s life was at risk, even if rape or incest was the cause of the pregnancy.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall can’t seem to catch a break these days. First he was ridiculed nationally for his dubious comment that he’s the last person the White House wants to see walking across the lawn, and now he’s being ridiculed internationally for being “brain dead,” as he called it, when asked softball questions during a TV interview.

Udall initially couldn’t name three books that influenced his life or a recent song that he had listened to, saying to KMGH’s Marc Stewart,
“Let me think. We can play this over, right? I mean, re-tape this?”

The one-hour Citizens United film that accuses the political left of highjacking Colorado makes its debate Saturday afternoon. Gov. John Hickenlooper released his funny reply, “Rocky Mountain Height” Saturday morning.

In the characteristically funny ad, a guy played by stand-up comedian and writer Adam Cayton-Holland has won the “Hang with Hickenlooper Raffle.” He has the governor doing chores — fetching a kite out of a tree, helping out in the kitchen and settling the score with some playground toughs.

“Your campaign says I can do whatever I want with you,” Clayton-Holland tells Hickenlooper in the 83-second spot. “Your biggest asset to me is you’re tall, so let’s go out and destroy these little dudes.”

The schedule for the anti-left political documentary “Rocky Mountain Heist” will make its TV debut Saturday, the producers, Citizens United, said today.

And just about the same time the schedule was announced for the one-hour movie, ProgressNow Colorado, one of the groups that has moved the state to the left, put out a 30-second video reply called “Don’t Be Fooled,” aimed at Citizens United, the conservative organization behind “Rocky Mountain Heist.” ProgressNow also created a website, http://dontbefooledcolorado.org/.

Elena Nunez, the executive director of voting rights and public integrity-focused nonprofit Colorado Common Cause, and Amy Runyon-Harms, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado, cited Amendment 65, which Colorado voters passed with a 74 percent majority two years ago.

Though it lacks legal authority, the ballot measure instructed the state’s congressional delegation to push an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would reverse the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court Citizens United decision that removed political spending limits from corporations and unions.

Here is your first look at “Rocky Mountain Heist,” the movie about how the political right thinks the political left took control of Colorado. The documentary will be available on TV in a matter of days, and a website for it, www.rockymountainheist.com, went live this afternoon.

Citizens United, the conservative group that brought the landmark campaign finance case to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010, won the right to put out the movie before the Nov. 4 election without disclosing its financial backers from a federal appeals court in Denver this week. The Virginia-based non-profit successfully argued it deserved the same protections as other media sources and shouldn’t have to adhere to state campaign finance rules on electioneering.

The trailer gives a glimpse of a lot of familiar conservative faces from Colorado politics: former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a two-time candidate for governor; Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck, who’s running for Congress this year; Jon Caldara, the president of the Independence Institute; and Laura Carno, a Republican strategist and founder of the local nonprofit I Am Created Equal.

Not sure what a Connecticut guy looks like, but Udall’s Republican challenger in his tough U.S. Senate race, Congressman Cory Gardner, is actually a fifth-generation Coloradan. If Gardner weren’t in Washington, he might be home in Yuma wearing a Case tractor hat and looking exactly like a Colorado guy. Udall was born in Tucson, but has deep roots in Colorado on his mother’s side of the family.

Republican consultant Sean Tonner also commented on Udall’s look when Gardner got into the race in February, turning Colorado’s Senate contest into one of the hottest races in the country. Tonner spoke to the AP’s Nic Ricardi.

“Mark Udall looks like he’s out of central casting for Western politician — he looks like he was born with a Patagonia jacket sitting on a 14er,” Tonner said, referring to Colorado’s fabled peaks over 14,000 feet.

Udall might look like Colorado but he doesn’t act like Colorado, said state GOP spokesman Owen Loftus.

“Nobody in Colorado agrees with President Obama 99 percent of the time,” Loftus said.

Sen. Mark Udall in Rocky Mountain National Park in August. The place has special meaning for Udall: his maternal grandfather was the park concessionaire in the 1920s and 1930s. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)

Kane is a former Denver Post reporter and former Channel 7 investigative executive producer whose new gig is with the libertarian-leaning Watchdog.org.

Like many Colorado media outlets, including The Post, Kane asked the campaigns for Hickenlooper and former congressman Bob Beauprez to provide copies of the candidates’ income tax returns.

The campaigns have provided tax information to outlets, like The Post, but Hickenlooper’s campaign has denied Kane. The returns are private information that candidates aren’t required to release. They are not part of open records laws. But serious candidates usually honor the request.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.